Spire Corporation and the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) have signed an agreement that calls for Spire to develop a microcrack detection technique for silicon solar cells and wafers in hopes of decreasing the cost and improving the reliability of solar cell and module manufacturers’ PV modules.
Spire will look into a microcrack detection method that can be used as an in-process diagnostic technique to identify defective crystalline silicon wafers or solar cells in a production line. The company hopes that the new method will facilitate solar cell and module manufacturers to reduce labour requirements for inspection and rework, augment production yields and make module reliability and lifetime better in the field. Once a successful demonstration of the crack detection technology is completed, Spire will engineer it into production cell testing, cell string and assembly equipment.
